Ta da!!!

What a great day in Tompkins Square Park yesterday! The sun shone, the crowds came and the dogs were cuter than cute in clever get-ups. I love seeing others' photos online because I didn’t see all the dogs in person. (Dog Draper won a prize, I heard, but I have yet to see him!)

I pulled Roonie’s pin cushion out of its bag while waiting in line to get into the dog run. First I put all the pins and needles in and right away things started going wrong. The yarn “thread” fell out and disappeared. Pin balls popped off and a couple of pin sticks broke, weren’t salvageable and had to be stashed in my backpack for later repair. And as if that weren’t bad enough, the pin cushion kept shifting to one side. Oh, dear!

And yet we were getting lots of compliments and everyone (except for the guy who thought it was bagpipes) recognized what he was supposed to be.

Our turn. We entered the ring and into the mic I said Macaroon’s name (forgot to say mine) and his history as a stick of butter and a taco. We went over to the judges, some of whom were the same and who remembered us! Oh, things were looking up as Macaroon did the same sort of schmoozing he did as a taco. He stood on his hind legs and looked deep into her eyes with the intensity his fans are familiar with. We took a turn around the ring feeling like celebs before the masses of paparazzi. So many cameras!! French TV interviewed me with Macaroon in my arms. And this morning we turned up on NY1!

There were 18 prizes for each of the three rounds of contestants numbering in the hundreds. Round one, our round. First prize...(they’re starting with first, not counting back?) The M23 bus, a corgi and his little boy as a bus stop, so cute. Very creative. They won a Jack Spade messenger bag worth hundreds of dollars. Nice. Second prize? THE PIN CUSHION!! OMG! We won!! Our prize? In my opinion, better than first, a professional photography session for Macaroon worth $600!!! Fantastic!!

Triumph!

Here are a few photos I snapped. So many clever costumes!! Do yourself a favor and set a Google alert for “Tompkins Square dog parade 2011” and see the amazing array in the photos of others not distracted by wardrobe malfunctions and able to capture the scene.

Many are of winners and favorites. Borat, Pinky the baked potato (was the Serta sheep in ’09), Sissy as Hurricane Irene (was Breakfast at Tiffany’s last year and placed 3^rd to my 4^th), Addicted to Love, the Pushme Pullyou, Slinky, Tippi Hedrin & the Birds, Lady Gaga, Nicky Minaj, the Trader Joe’s staff, the Oz monkey, Anna Wintour & Karl Lagerfeld and Princess Beatrix in that silly fascinator.